I got Sparks .99 intro as well a couple days back.

So far...Hitsville Chambers is amazing. Testing it against other verbs and IRs and nothing so far is super close to it's unique sound.

The Hitsville EQ is great but Kazrog sounds equal.

I prefer Outer Space way more than Galaxy.

The Lexicon, Plate and Chorus don't sound any better than similar plugins I use.

Compressors and Pultecs? Some of my least used effects so I haven't bothered with them yet.

In three months I wouldn't keep the $20 a month sub just for Hitsville Chambers. Include Capitol Chambers though...

I don’t subscribe to Spark mate. I bought Ultimate 11 bundle and got UADx versions for free…

Saw a video of the Opal synth the other day and it looked pretty sweet. Probably nothing I couldn't recreate sound-wise in Hive or Pigments, but looked like a really nice workflow

purchase regret? Basslane Pro is not working as I expected….

latest BF purchases ... some oldies for some ...

Got a decent price on FabFilter Q-3 and MB plugs from LOOT Audio, so added them to my collection.

I think you'll like Pro Q3. It's not the easiest to grok especially with the dynamic eq part but when you do you'll love it. It's NOT a desert island eq by any stretch of the imagination.

Thats what I did, only with Liquidsonics, since now I have all but one (it’d cost $23 but… it can wait until next year). You know, reverbs of the future rather than the past like those U Are Dead ones.




(Actually I’m afraid to try the Spark sub because I might like the Lexicon reverbs a lot - more cost effective to just get LX480 some day!)

Yeah ... I was seeing several quick tutorials from guys like Streaky, showing
a few techniques [using FF]. Ideas were very easy to setup with the Fab plugins. Sure, I was able to do similar with other plugins ... but Fab was great on workflow with good sound.

I considered Kirchhoff .... but it just had TOO many options for what I wanted. Reminds me of the Unisum compressor, which I only scratched the surface with all the various controls. Great sounds ... but again, too many options for what I needed. Maybe over time learning they'll get more use.

The dynamics option with Q-3 is so easy to work, and the MB is great for working specific areas of the spectrum.

At $106 ea ... not bad for what I can do with them.

Real men use Pro Q3....

The rest can go and Kirchhoff!

Who's Streaky?

https://www.streakystudios.com

A mastering engineer who's built up a pretty popular YouTube channel.

How's it falling short so far?

i was expecting the seas to part and a glorious full lowend bass to reveal itself… but after three hours not able to dial it in on a bass track….

Kirchhoff defender here...

I’ve heard this a few times and it’s basically not true... yea, it has a few options... so?... you scared of options? If ya don’t want the options, then leave them alone and they won’t bother you. ... no need to talk smack about options.

You’re just jealous cause it’s the one plug in the universe that you don’t have.

I’ve got the regular version and tried it on a bass track yesterday... it didn’t do anything I particularly liked... made it wider... and the side harmonics is cool, but I’d rather use vsm-3 for that.... it might come in useful sometime and I might try it on a guitar or some keys to see if it works for those, but for now... nope.

Have you tried bass-mint?

I bought the MODO Max upgrade. There I said it. I like MODO Bass and MODO Drums, they've worked well for me in a few projects and the BF price was right after jam points to get both of 'em I am sure there will be a group buy next year where you can get them and more besides for less or something, but I've been using the older versions in projects now, not eager to wait!

I also got a limited edition Ratical from Finch Electronics with a bunch of cool mojo parts (NOS LM118 metal can high slew rate op amp from the '80s! Op amp in a metal can, come on, that's rad), snagged a Timmy 15th Anniversary V3 from PaulC's Reverb store when he put a handful of them up, and helped myself to a Schiit Loki Mini+ EQ to complement my little DAC and amp stack, but those are not plugins. I might have already mentioned it but Sweetwater also did a great deal on Egnater Rebel 112x cabs so I'm setting my Univalve up with a 2x12 mini "stack," which I always wanted to do back in the day but couldn't swing at the time. I think I was using a cheap Jet City cab with it back then (still sounded good, though).

I dunno, I just don't need too many plugins at this point, my process is working for me and I like my tools pretty well. I canceled F29 because I'm half ass feeling swindled with my investment over time with PA versus the crazy deals PA gave if you took advantage of the right stuff this Black Friday - only half because I use the tools I bought often and they are quality! But I feel like there is no need to pay for that kind of thing when it's clear that there's just going to be cheaper and cheaper ways to get whatever they make in the future.


Easyrider, congrats on going whole hog with UAD - hope they work well for you and you enjoy that purchase, big commitment but now the plugin world's your oyster, yeah? Hope everyone who celebrates it in some way has had a nice holiday - it's been a good one here, spent time with my family and felt grateful for the good times.

I'm still greatly basking with the Hugh Padham SDX sounds I purchased last month, making some custom mix configurations, templates with Aly James, and a couple Cubase Drum maps.

So no, I can't comment on Kicks & Snares based on just over an hour of testing.

My main concern is whether or not Kicks & Snares is a collection of other kicks and snares from other EZXs. I don't believe this is true. I'm sure there are some that are very similar, but not duplicates. I thought this because Chris Whitten, who was the midi drummer for the C&V SDX, to my knowledge hasn't worked with Toontrack in quite a while. However he is credited with some on Kicks & Snares, so it made me wonder if some of this was from his Custom & Vintage or maybe unreleased samples.

Chris posts here quite a bit. I haven't had time to PM him.

No. I actually purchased to my knowledge, the first SD3 that was called DFH Superior. Then somewhere along the lines Toontrack started their EZD line with EZX expansions because frankly, the DFHS to SD2 to SD3 is well...costly and....superior!

When you buy SD3, included are some SDXs. Unless they have changed, you get Superior plus NY Avatar plus a couple Hit Factories. With this said, I can achieve some of the sounds from these SDX's that I feel would duplicate or come close to some of the general EZXs.

With SD3 everything is very flexible. But the drawback... how much time does one want to spend attempting to duplicate a sound or drum kit in SD3 when you can just use a particular EZX, because an EZX will load in SD3? And some EZX's like Dream Pop, Twisted Kit, etc are not possible to achieve in SD3. For myself, both EZX,s and SDX's are very beneficial. EZX is quick fast and...EZ. And by the way, you can remove processing in EZX, the thing is you can't remove the actual recorded drum sample that includes some processing baked in.

Thank you for these responses, they are very helpful to me.

I'm very interested in acoustic drums and have actually played them and listened to them in reality. I like the sound of hi-hats the most.

And I'm considering the EZD3 over the SD3 mainly for two reasons, one is because the EZDrummer 3 was just upgraded this year and carries a lot of interesting new features and brings great new drum samples. And the other is that I'm worried that SD4 will be released next year, in three years at the latest, and the upgrade cost will likely be an unnecessary expense, while Crossgrade is much more cost effective in comparison. I think I'll be purchasing that this Black Friday.

You're right, some processing that can't be removed can lead to poor universality, so I also bought the BFD for $49 on Black Friday, which provides a better sound of the original recording to use to fill in the gaps. I also have some drum kits from NI and they work sometimes.

I had been using Steinberg Groove Agent before, but I always felt that it took too much time to get it to a satisfactory level.

Thanks again, and I hope we can discuss this aspect more in the future as well.

My Rationale behind going U11 was mainly Tracking with pre amps and working out the cost associated with acquiring said preamps with vouchers and sales times with detailed advice from @ mark123 and others on here. Thanks to those who guided me. Little things like getting a thank you voucher, waiting for cash vouchers until the end of promos etc all worked !

Then of course it was the other plugins I demoed like the comps and reverbs that I really liked. And the fact UAD were in a transition phase of going native etc and it all seemed interesting again.

U11 for £859 seemed a decent price ( lowest its ever been AFAIK ) and all these things I mention it just felt the right time to jump in. And I’ve been so strict with my spending and mindful of what I was buying and why etc.. I did a lot of thinking about it before pulling the trigger on the deal.

On trying a few UAD instruments and plugins last night it’s been one of my best value purchases to date. And I’m not just saying that cause I’m suffering from purchase justification complex but from a UAD noob with a tiny knowledge of what sounds good and being happy with what I’m hearing coming out of the speakers.

I’m Glad you’re digging your new tools aswell. Now it’s time to learn them and use them and make some Tracy Chapman acoustic rock !

Do any of you familiar with Toontrack know if they will offer some consistant sale on EZDrummer for this BF ?
For the moment there's nothing but a free expansion if you buy the full price stuff, but they add more stuff each day.

I just think it will be strange if anybody is buying now EZDrummer and get a free expansion, to find there's a consistant reduction on it the day after... But hey, it's the wild plugin world...

It is excellent no doubt.

Not really though I always consider whether it actually adds something to my music making/mixing before buying things even if it is really cheap! I do care about if I need it as there's always more mileage to be had out of what I'm using and don't like so many options.

I'm going for true 252 and true dynamics.

Demo'd Tai Chi Lite and it's a steal for $29. I'd been looking for something to replace R4 that's not crazy expensive. Gonna upgrade to the full version at the next sale. The feature set is not too complex but just complex enough to get the vibe fast.

I bought 6 plugins for black Friday goddanm, they were things i always wanted and was using some shortcut to get the sound.

How can you describe the tone compared to a Bricasti M7, lexicon 480L and EMT 140 ????

going to try again - with the dev suggestions:

basslane pro:

While Basslane Pro shines on stereo material, it is also very useful for full mono tracks. You can create new stereo information using the Stereo Harmonics section, and add punch or weight while keeping the dynamics in range.

For a single bass track I would recommend you start by dialing in the main frequency with the Freq knob to find the meaty part of the bass (the Solo monitoring button is helpful for this). From there, you can try adding some harmonics by setting it to Mid or Stereo and boosting Amount until it feels right. This should give you a bigger and wider sound. You can adjust the stereo width with the Mid/Side knob and soften the sound with the Dampen.

From there try enabling the Boost sub filter if you want a tight bass boost. You will need to tune the frequency to where it fits your bass track and perhaps dial down the amount. This affects the harmonics unless you set it to Post.

Try enabling Dynamics in Stereo mode and pull down the Threshold until you see some good gain reduction happening. Then adjust the Amount and Gain to where it sits right. You’ll get punch and density from compression, and more “fullness” and “body” from expansion.

If needed, you can use the output limiter to get extra density and loudness.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Rune - Tone Projects

Wow, where buying a plugin causes problems and hampers workflow